How cannabis and LGBTQ rights reform have become intertwined over the decades

Through Andrew Ward

The cannabis and LGBTQ rights movements have been connected from the start as they have lobbied each other for reform over the decades.

“Without the other, neither would probably exist as they do today,” said Tyme Ferris, founder and CEO of cannabis brand Pantheon Collective.

The decades have been turbulent for any effort. Both movements saw positive advances in the 1960s. Some states decriminalized homosexual activity, and various positive reports from the Kennedy and Johnson eras were filed about the plant. In the 1970s, however, under the Nixon administration, progress turned into a step backwards.

Photo by Anete Lusina from Pexels

Under the Controlled Substances Act, cannabis was listed as a Schedule I drug, believed to have maximum potential for abuse but no medicinal value. This classification came “despite the Nixon-formed Shafer Commission recommending the decriminalization of cannabis,” said Pantheon Collective co-founder Thomas Kupiec.

The 1980s were equally devastating for both movements. As the drug war raged on, HIV and AIDS impacted the gay community, which was rocked by the virus. Between 1981 and 1990, more than 100,000 people died from AIDS, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

When the disease swept the United States, President Ronald Reagan decided not to raise the issue until 1987. At the same time, he continued the Nixon-era war on drugs spearheaded by the Just Say No campaign.

Without medical guidance, marijuana has been shown to be effective in treating various HIV and AIDS-related symptoms, including wasting syndrome, nausea, chronic pain, and anxiety.

“In most places that have been deeply affected by the AIDS crisis, there is a connection between marijuana reform and gay rights,” said journalist and podcaster Jay Lassiter.

Instead of pushing for cannabis access, America doubled down on punishment. Bills such as the Comprehensive Crime Control Act 1984, the Anti-Drug Abuse Act 1986 and the controversial three strike sentencing laws were enacted.

Still, LGBTQ advocates pushed for their community’s rights and access to medicinal cannabis.

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In 1996, decades of effort by the two movements helped push California’s Proposition 215 to become the first law legalizing medical marijuana. The bill’s co-author, Dennis Peron, had been a cannabis advocate since the 1970s after his partner used marijuana while living with AIDS.

Since then, the two movements have been closely linked, for better or for worse. Neil Lequia, founder and CEO of the cannabis industry’s LGBTQ organization The Full Spectrum, said that queer people are more likely to be affected by substance abuse and mental health problems than straight people.

Lequia said cannabis use is “a coping mechanism” to help combat pain associated with her queer lifestyle, including bullying and family separation.

In his opinion, despite the increased likelihood of use, queer people are underrepresented in the cannabis industry.

“I see a lack of us in the industry, although I’m more likely to take advantage of it,” Lequia said.

Photo by Daniel James via Unsplash

Some notable names leading the movement

Queer people are one of the core groups helping to drive reform in the US. As NORML founder Keith Stroup wrote in 2020, other influential groups included black jazz musicians like Louis Armstrong who helped catalyze the movement with continued pot use, despite being arrested multiple times.

The jazz movement launched a reform push that really got going in the 1960s. Dan Goldman, freelance writer and founder of LGBT drug legalization organization leGAYlize It!, said the cannabis rights movement began with gay leaders like Allen Ginsberg.

“While there was almost certainly cross-cultural pollination between jazz cigarette lovers and LGBT artists in cities like New Orleans in the mid-20th century, the reform movement begins with gay beat poet Allen Ginsberg and the founding of LeMar (Legalize Marijuana). East Village of New York City in 1964,” Goldman said.

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LeMar is considered the earliest cannabis advocacy group, with members forming prohibition protests beginning in 1965.

In addition to Peron, Ferris said that Harvey Milk and his ally, Mary Jane Rathburn, aka “Brownie Mary,” helped advance the medical movement in the Bay Area.

Milk has been a key part of supporting legal cannabis, including passing the Proposition W non-binding voting initiative aimed at decriminalizing cannabis. For her part, Rathburn sold infused brownies to AIDS patients in the Bay Area and baked dozens of brownies a day.

Lassiter quoted East Coast leaders during this period, including Malcolm Gregory Scott and Dr. Doug Ward.

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Ward has been recognized as a leading expert in AIDS treatment for over four decades. Scott, a writer and AIDS survivor, was discharged from the Navy for being gay and then helped lift restrictions on LGBTQ members. Scott also credits cannabis with helping save him from a near-fatal AIDS-related medical problem in the ’90s.

Lassiter credited AIDS patients with helping change public perceptions of medical cannabis reform.

“These activists were smart enough to basically use their misery to reshape the cannabis discussion, and that’s one hell of a legacy to leave behind,” Lassiter said.

representation matters

With the consolidation of cannabis, leadership for women and minorities will become less diverse.

Data compiled by Marijuana Business Daily in 2021 found that female cannabis executives fell from 36.8% in 2019 to 22.1% in 2021. Minority leadership fell from 28% in 2019 to 13.1% in 2021.

LGBTQ operators want to see change

Renee Gagnon is a Canadian operator and the first female transgender CEO of a British Columbia public marijuana company, HollyWeed North Cannabis Inc., now Emerald Health Therapeutics Inc.

Gagnon, who has five licenses to date, said her efforts as a man were accepted but “right now I’m not quite good enough” or that “we can hire a more sellable guy who ‘knows how things work’. “

Gagnon added: “Until there is gender equality, the other inequalities will lag behind.”

This article originally appeared on Benzinga and has been republished with permission.